posted at 6:41 pm on March 26, 2013 by Allahpundit

The series will perform oversight of the cost and impact of unnecessary, ineffective, and excessive federal regulations. Johnson also invited anyone who has been dealing with excess regulation to submit their stories on his Senate website.

“The root cause of our economic and fiscal problems is the size, the scope, and the cost of government – all the rules, all the regulations, and all the government intrusion into our lives,” Johnson said. “The Victims of Government series is designed to demonstrate that – in a very personal and powerful way. Over-regulation consumes massive amounts of the people’s money, too often lacks common sense, has no heart, costs jobs and economic growth.”

The good news? Johnson’s drawing needed attention to a series of injustices. The bad news? If he’s intent on sticking with this once ObamaCare gets rolling, he’ll have to quit the Senate to handle the volume of complaints.

Skip the obvious question of why no Republican’s thought to do something like this before and ask a narrower question: Why has no Republican thought to do something like this specifically vis-a-vis gun control? There are entire television programs devoted to telling the stories of victims of gun-related crime airing on cable news every night. Meanwhile, to catch a story about crimes being thwarted by gun owners, you’re stuck relying on some enterprising gun-rights supporter to record his local news, upload the clip to YouTube, and then take the time to send it around to conservative media in hopes that it gets picked up. Obama’s media shop has been known to release vids of angelic waifs begging him, please, to ban the guns already. Unless I missed it, there’s been no GOP video about these kids. Mystifying.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

“The root cause of our economic and fiscal problems is the size, the scope, and the cost of government – all the rules, all the regulations, and all the government intrusion into our lives,” Johnson said.

my only question is why doesn’t the RNC dedicate a part of their website to this project

Because the RNC is part of the problem….it, too, is part of the problem and desires to increase the size, the scope, intrusiveness and the cost of centralized federal government. Just a bit differently than the Dems, but it is still gung ho for big government.

50.8% of the voting electorate voted for this.
tom daschle concerned on March 26, 2013 at 6:51 PM

You are wrong. 100% of the people voted for this. These civil atrocities have been occurring over all administrations. The Corps of Engineers have been abusers and incompetents for years and years. A long time ago, they did good work. Not in the last 50 years. The Corps is too politicized and full of engineering incompetents. Nixon, carter Reagan, bush clinton bush obama are ALL equally guilty. They did not have the political will to control their bureacratic atrocities and over reaches.

I love that Johnson is doing this, but let’s be honest: The man isn’t a very good storyteller. After watching the video, I don’t know what the hell he is talking about. Why would anyone invest a total of $300K to build lakes to protect a dump? I just felt like there is probably a compelling story here but the storyteller left out all the important details.

It reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. He yada, yada’d over the best part.

There are 1300 Federal agencies and these are nothing but Federal Entitlement Programs stuffed with friends and family from both the GOP and the Dems. They produce nothing that’s taxable to our Treasury but their paychecks and we as taxpayers fund all these. To add insult to injury Google (the number of staff for Congress) they call them different names but they are still staff. Over twenty three thousand staff. Google also (list of government agencies) read them all from A-Z and you’ll laugh at the titles of some and get angry at others. I blame Congress for most of this and the Congress is the owner and operator of the Country’s checkbook and one third of the branches of our government.

Skip the obvious question of why no Republican’s thought to do something like this before and ask a narrower question: Why has no Republican thought to do something like this specifically vis-a-vis gun control? There are entire television programs devoted to telling the stories of victims of gun-related crime airing on cable news every night. Meanwhile, to catch a story about crimes being thwarted by gun owners, you’re stuck relying on some enterprising gun-rights supporter to record his local news, upload the clip to YouTube, and then take the time to send it around to conservative media in hopes that it gets picked up. Obama’s media shop has been known to release vids of angelic waifs begging him, please, to ban the guns already. Unless I missed it, there’s been no GOP video about these kids. Mystifying.

Simple. They care more about their popularity within the DC ruling-class power structure than about representing us. They are more afraid of what Chrissy Tingles might say about them than they are of what we might say to them. Let’s face it. Most of them are in safe seats year after year. How else would there be such a thing as a career politician? They have written us off, and we should return the favor. That’s why I wrote to my congressman (a Republican) and told him he may no longer rely on my vote, since I can’t rely on his.

Skip the obvious question of why no Republican’s thought to do something like this before…

The GOP is so bereft of imagination and daring, so congenitally passive, so unable to comprehend the meaning and necessity of proactive political engagement, it defies belief. We’re like psychosomatic political hemophiliacs. And no matter to what degree the Left bashes our brains in, the notion of fighting back, or of taking the fight to THEM, simply cannot be absorbed.

Ron Johnson’s website is an act of genius only because the GOP are such nitwits. So it’s relative. This sort of thing should have been in motion from the time of Reagan.

Unless I missed it, there’s been no GOP video about these kids. Mystifying.

There is so much the GOP could and should be doing. The amount of hypocrisy and government abuse coming from the left is like ripe hanging fruit hanging from the tree ready to be picked…. but the GOP leadership just sits there doing not a freaking thing.

They have no creativity. No passion. No desire. They are like relics from a different era.

After watching the video, I don’t know what the hell he is talking about. Why would anyone invest a total of $300K to build lakes to protect a dump?

rogaineguy on March 26, 2013 at 7:24 PM

He turned the dump into a lake, which prevented his entire neighborhood from being flooded.

They told him that he had to turn it back into wetlands (which seems pretty stupid to say that a lake isn’t wetlands) or the adjacent farm into wetlands. The $300k is for all the permits he had to buy in order to turn a dump into something that would save property.